Deputy Director

Inskip, Hazel

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Hazel Inskip is Professor of Statistical Epidemiology and Deputy Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

Hazel graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first class degree in Mathematics and Statistics then did an MSc and PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she worked for six years. She subsequently worked for the International Agency for Research in Cancer (WHO) at the MRC Laboratories in The Gambia on the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study, a trial of Hepatitis B vaccine in 124,000 infants. She moved to Southampton in 1991 to work at the MRC Unit.

Since 1998, she has been running the Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS) (https://www.mrc.soton.ac.uk/sws/) and contributing to and coordinating some of the resulting intervention studies that are now on-going. The SWS is an internationally-renowned cohort study, which, uniquely in the western world, recruited young women who were not pregnant and characterised them in detail before following up those who subsequently became pregnant. Some 12,583 women were recruited, of whom 3,158 went on to deliver a live-born infant. The children have been followed up regularly. The 11-13 year follow-up of the children started in August 2013 and the 17-19 year follow-up is being piloted.

Findings from the SWS have led to intervention studies assessing measures to improve public health. Notably, (1) we conducted a trial (MAVIDOS) of maternal vitamin D supplementation and showed that it improved bone health of the baby if it was born in the winter months. The children are continuing to be followed-up (2) the observation that maternal health behaviours have a profound influence on the diets and health of the children has led to developing a ‘Healthy Conversation Skills’ training for staff in Southampton Sure Start Children’s Centres, and an initiative for teenagers in schools known as LifeLab, based at Southampton General Hospital. LifeLab has been extended in EACH-B which she co-leads with Professor Mary Barker (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/lifelab/research/each-b.page) to including Healthy Conversation Skills for teachers and a digital app for the school students to use to encourage them to improve their health behaviours. The effects of vitamin D supplementation and/or Healthy Conversation Skills are being assessed in the SPRING trial, a factorial trial in pregnant women in Southampton.

1986-1991 Statistician/Programmer (and from 1990 Programme Leader) for the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study. Employed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO).

1979-1986 Research Fellow (and from 1985 Lecturer) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London

RESEARCH

My research interests focus on the influence of health and health behaviours before and during pregnancy on the development of the offspring. I run a large cohort study, the Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS), which recruited women when not pregnant and we are following up their children (now aged 12 to 20 years). We have developed various intervention studies based at least in part on SWS findings, with the aim of improving preconception and pregnancy health behaviours, body composition and health in parents. A particular interest is in adolescent health as teenagers will become parents of the next generation.

Jameson, Karen

Statistician

Jameson, Karen

Karen graduated from the University of Reading in 2004 with an MSc in Biometry, having previously obtained a BSc (Hons) in Applied Statistics from the University of Plymouth.

She joined the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in 2006 as a statistician and largely works in the area of musculoskeletal research using a variety of data resources including the Hertfordshire Cohort Study.

Johnson, Matt

Statistician

Johnson, Matt

Name

Matt Johnson

Qualifications

MSc

Role

Statistician

Matt has over 10 years’ experience working in healthcare data science and analytics, initially in support of healthcare commissioning initiatives for the NHS in Hampshire, UK, and later producing applied epidemiological and public health research.

Matt joined the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in October 2018, where he is responsible for statistical analysis for a programme of research being undertaken in India on the developmental and early life origins of health and disease. His role also involves providing statistical consultancy to early career researchers and PhD students on this programme, and teaching within the Faculty of Medicine.

Prior to this, he worked for the National Institute for Health Research CLAHRC Wessex research unit from July 2014, where he specialised in the development and implementation of complex algorithms for case finding and risk stratification using linked, routinely collected primary and secondary care data.

Johnson, Wendy

Administrative Assistant

Johnson, Wendy

Name

Mrs Wendy Johnson

Qualifications

Role

Administrative Assistant

Wendy is currently responsible for recruiting participants and making appointments for the Southampton Women’s Survey, Mavidos and NiPPeR studies. Liaising with the research nurses on a daily basis to ensure the office runs smoothly and efficiently.

Kehoe, Sarah

Senior Research Fellow

Kehoe, Sarah

Name

Dr Sarah Kehoe

Qualifications

BSc MSc PhD ANutr

Role

Senior Research Fellow

I am a Public Health Nutritionist with an interest in global health and the determinants of diet and physical activity. I completed my BSc in Physiology and Psychology and my MSc in Public Health Nutrition, both at the University of Southampton.

I joined the MRC LEU in 2006 and have since worked on nutritional aspects of cohort and intervention studies investigating the developmental origins of chronic disease in India. This has included dietary and physical activity assessment, diet patterns analysis, systematic reviews, development of a micronutrient-rich snack and micronutrient status assessment. I completed my PhD in 2013 which I undertook on a part time basis over a four year period. My thesis was entitled ‘The effect of a micronutrient-rich food supplement on women’s health and nutrient status’.

In 2015-2017, I led a qualitative study in rural Maharashtra, India which aimed to identify constraints to fruit and vegetable consumption among women of reproductive age. We investigated both supply and demand factors by holding focus group discussions and interviews with consumers, vendors, wholesalers and farmers. We also engaged with policy makers and other stakeholders to understand their priorities in terms of improving nutrition and health in these communities.

My current research focuses on determinants of dietary habits and associated cardiometabolic health outcomes in low-income settings in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, and aims to identify and implement interventions to improve nutritional status across the lifecourse.

I am Scientific Coordinator for the NIHR Global Health Research Group INPreP (Improved Nutrition Preconception, Pregnancy and Postnatally). This project aims to identify and pilot interventions to improve maternal and child nutritional status in in Burkina Faso, Ghana and South Africa.

I am a member of the TALENT (Transforming Adolescent Lives through Nutrition) Research group which aims to develop and implement interventions in India and Sub-Saharan Africa to optimise diet and increase physical activity among adolescents.

Kumaran, Kalyanaraman

Associate Professor

Kumaran, Kalyanaraman

Name

Professor Kalyanaraman Kumaran

Qualifications

MBBS, MSc, PG Cert, DM, FFPH

Role

Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health

After completing my undergraduate medical degree in India, I was involved in the collaborative studies on the fetal origins of adult disease between the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Southampton and Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore between 1994 and 1998. I obtained a DM from the University of Southampton based on the work in Mysore. The success of the Mysore projects attracted funding for developing a new purpose built research centre. My interest in translating research into practice led me to undergo formal training in public health in the UK between 1999 and 2004. During this period, I obtained an MSc in Public Health, a postgraduate certificate in clinical education and the membership of the Faculty of Public Health, UK.

Between October 2004 and March 2012, I worked at consultant level in the UK for the Health Protection Agency, NHS Somerset and the Peninsula Medical School where my portfolio included clinical, management and teaching roles. I led on public health intelligence and clinical governance arrangements. I was involved in the development and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate public health teaching, and am an accredited service and academic public health trainer.

In 2012, I took up a post with the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Southampton to be based mainly in India and work across the MRC and various Indian teams on collaborative projects relating to the developmental origins of health and disease. My role is to provide support to the setting up and management of teams for ongoing and future projects, and contribute to the development of future research strategy, acquisition of funding and translation of research evidence into public health practice and policy. I have since been closely involved in supporting a community-based pre-conceptional micronutrient supplementation trial to influence programming of diabesity in the next generation in Pune, and in the follow-up of children born in a pre-conceptional community-based supplementation trial of micronutrient rich food among slum dwellers in Mumbai. I am also the co- leader of a successful bid for a centre of excellence in Pune focussing on the ‘omics’ of fetal programming. In Mysore, I am involved in a multi-centre study examining environmental and genetic factors influencing externalising disorders, and in examining programming of stress responses in young adults. I am the Indian principal investigator of a multi-country longitudinal multi-faceted intervention study (the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative), which involves nutrition, behavior change, hygiene and psychosocial interventions. My long-term interests include the application of multi-faceted, evidence-based population level interventions to improve fetal growth and long-term health using a lifecourse approach, and teaching and training initiatives.

Associate Professor

Lawrence, Wendy

Dr Wendy Lawrence is Associate Professor of Health Psychology within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

I am a Chartered Psychologist, a member of the British Psychological Society and the European Health Psychology Society, and HCPC-registered. I am also the BPS Division of Health Psychology’s Practitioner Lead. My research interests cover all aspects of health improvement including lifestyle behaviours such as diet and physical activity, with a particular focus on translating research observations into activities to bring about behaviour change to improve population health. I contribute qualitative expertise and skills to a range of projects.

I have led the development and delivery of a training intervention, “Healthy Conversation Skills” (HCS), to front-line practitioners to enable them to better support people to make sustainable health behaviour changes. The training has since been commissioned by other agencies both in the UK and internationally to support workforce development and improvements in population health. It is being used as one mechanism of delivery of Health Education England’s work to meet the UK government’s Making Every Contact Count agenda, which is now part of all NHS contracts, with me providing consultancy and advice to HEE (Wessex). I also contribute to the Faculty of Medicine’s LifeLab programme, as I describe in this video on LifeLab.

Evaluation of the impact of HCS in different contexts and populations is a key focus of my current work. Funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Health I supported the delivery, roll-out and evaluation of training across New Zealand to the maternal and child health workforce (with over 3,000 trained up to 2018) Healthy Conversation Skills Training web page. As part of a range of international collaborations, I have trained fieldworkers and researchers in South Africa, China, Australia and Canada.

I work with the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust facilitating well-being discussion groups in order to support improvements in the health and well-being of NHS staff. I am also the Team-working, Leadership and Patient Safety theme Lead for the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, working closely with students & staff to provide high quality learning experiences.

Linaker, Cathy

Senior Research Fellow

Linaker, Cathy

Name

Dr Cathy Linaker

Qualifications

PhD BN RGN

Role

Senior Research Fellow

I am a senior research fellow with a special interest in work and health and am a co-investigator on the Health and Employment after Fifty (HEAF) Study. I am also the training lead for early career researchers in Programme 2 and the Arthritis Research UK/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work (with research aimed at identifying cost-effective ways of minimising the substantial adverse impacts of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace).

I graduated in Nursing Studies at the University of Southampton in 1990. I worked as a clinical research nurse in the Department of Medicine at the University of Southampton where I completed a PhD in 1997 that explored the effects of nitrogen dioxide on asthmatic symptoms in school-aged children.

I joined the MRC Unit in Southampton in 1997 and subsequently set up and coordinated a number of large scale community longitudinal studies of upper limb disorders. This included the development and piloting of a standardised proforma for the upper limb and neck (the Southampton Examination Schedule) and the subsequent training of other researchers and clinical staff in this technique.

I have also coordinated a number of other occupational studies including: a case-control study of occupational and lifestyle risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome; a multi-centre randomised controlled trial of physical activity and physiotherapy in the management of distal arm pain; the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) study; a NIHR-funded feasibility trial of Individualised Placement and Support for unemployed people with chronic pain (InSTEP) and the Well@Work Project with Southampton City Council that aims to provide support to people with musculoskeletal and/or mental health conditions who are at risk of losing their jobs.

Mahon, Pam

Superintendent Sonographer

Mahon, Pam

Name

Dr Pam Mahon

Qualifications

DCR (R) DMU MA PhD

Role

Superintendent Sonographer

Pam graduated from West Mercia School of Radiography in 1985, after which she gained experience at The Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, in the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound. In 1986 she took up a post at The Hillingdon Hospital, Uxbridge, where she remained for 8 years in general radiography, nuclear medicine, mammography and ultrasound. In 1990 she gained her Diploma of Medical Ultrasound and began specialising in obstetric studies. In 1994 Pam began a 7 year post, co-ordinating the maternity ultrasound services at Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, where she also trained ultrasound students from the Armed Forces. Her experience in obstetrics and teaching led her to join the research team involved with The Southampton Women’s Survey, by becoming the Superintendent Songrapher responsible for the scanning of pregnant recruits in the study. She gained her Masters Degree in Osteoarchaeology from the University of Southampton in 2002 and her PhD (on the use of three-dimensional ultrasound to study musculo-skeletal development in the fetus) in 2007.

Research interests:

Pam is using ultrasound imaging in obstetrics to study growth and development of fetuses, with particular focus on 3 and 4-dimensional imaging and musculo-skeletal development. She hopes that this research will aid the understanding of the developmental origins of osteoporosis and body composition. Pam continues to act as a human bone specialist for archaeological research and is actively involved in writing osteological reports in her capacity as a consultant. She is particularly interested in the evolution of the human femur through time and the influence of activity upon its geometry.

Professional affiliations:

A member of the Society of Radiographers, a member of the British Medical Ultrasound Society and a member of the Health Professions Council.

Marshall-Cox, Philip

Philip graduated with a Degree in Physics from Southampton University in June 1998 and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in 1999. He spent approximately 12 years teaching GCSE and A Level Physics in a number of Hampshire Secondary schools with a brief interlude on medical grounds during which he also retrained to cover the Primary phase.

Leaving teaching in 2012 to pursue practical ambitions, he studied for a string of vocational qualifications before trading independently as an Electrician ahead of being invited to join the MRC as a part-time Building Manager towards the end of 2013. Whilst continuing to conduct business as a sole-trader away from the MRC, Philip studied for the necessary Health and Safety qualifications to enable him to take over the role of Building Facilities Manager full-time in January of 2015.

Since 2015, Philip has overseen the external refurbishment of the building, working closely with Jerry Draper and the external contractors to keep the project on course and ensure the building remains viable for the foreseeable future. In addition, he has worked toward agreeing a review of the electrical specification of the building, working closely with Martyn Poxon and Ray Smith to complete a total rewire and a doubling of the incoming capacity to accommodate future freezer provision.

Philip is a regular member of the Faculty of Medicine Health and Safety panel with Karen Walker-Bone and liaises regularly with Mark Pickett to ensure continued compliance with Health and Safety updates.

McGill, Karen

Research Nurse

McGill, Karen

Name

Mrs Karen McGill

Qualifications

Role

Research Nurse

Having qualified as an RGN in 1986, Karen went on to become a midwife and worked at the Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, for a number of years. She is interested in health promotion and has also worked on smoking cessation initiatives with pregnant women.

Karen joined the Southampton Women’s Survey in 1998 as a research nurse. She worked on the Southampton Women’s Survey and on a study within the SWS on maternal diet, body composition and protein metabolism before and during pregnancy, and their relation to fetal growth. Most recently she has been involved in the MAVIDOS and SPRING maternal Vitamin D studies.

Moon, Rebecca

Clinical Fellow

Moon, Rebecca

Name

Dr Rebecca Moon

Qualifications

Role

Clinical Fellow

Rebecca completed her undergraduate medical training at the University of Southampton in 2006, including a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. She has been training in paediatrics and child health within the Wessex region, during which she has developed an interest in children’s hormone disorders, obesity and bone health. Rebecca gained experience in epidemiological research during an academic clinical fellowship at the MRC LEU in 2012, during which she undertook analysis of data from the Southampton Women’s Survey. She subsequently started a period of doctoral research at the MRC LEU in September 2013. This will explore the role of antenatal vitamin D supplementation in offspring body composition and muscle development among the children born to mothers participating in the MAVIDOS study.

Newey, Suzanne

Research Nurse

Newey, Suzanne

Name

Mrs Suzanne Newey

Qualifications

R.S.C.N. Enb 240

Role

Paediatric Research Nurse

Suzanne qualified as a nurse in 1994 at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and went on to work at both GOSH and University Hospital Southampton specialising in Paediatric Haematology and Oncology. Suzanne developed her skills in acute medicine on the PICU at GOSH and went on to be Care Manager and Lead Nurse for Child Protection at Naomi House Children’s Hospice near Winchester.

Suzanne worked as a Parent Supporter alongside a team of Health Visitors and Social Workers on the online forum Netmums, developing Child Protection policies and procedures. Suzanne joined the Southampton Women’s Survey in 2011 to work primarily on the SWS follow ups of the children at 6 years old. She is now involved in the 13 year old follow up clinic, alongside working on the MAVIDOS and SPRING visits in the community. Skills include Phlebotomy, Pubertal assessment, Anthropometry, Dental Photography and delivering ‘healthy conversations’ to study participants.

Newington, Lisa

PhD Student

Newington, Lisa

Name

Lisa Newington

Qualifications

BSc(Hons), MSc

Role

NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow

In 2003 Lisa completed an undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Nottingham and worked on a research collaboration exploring parasite population dynamics.

Lisa studied MSc Physiotherapy at King’s College London from 2004-2006, working as a Physiotherapist in the NHS on graduating. Lisa soon specialised in Hand Therapy and became involved in the British Association of Hand Therapists and is currently Chair of their Clinical Evidence Committee. Lisa still works clinically one day a month at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2012 Lisa was awarded a one-year BRC Allied Health Professional Research Training Fellowship, with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, where she developed a qualitative research project to explore researchers’ and clinicians’ views of recruiting to clinical research.

Lisa has been involved with the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit since 2014 when she was awarded an NIHR/HEE Wessex Allied Health Professional Research Internship. Together with her supervisors, Dr Karen Walker-Bone (MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit), Prof Jo Adams (Faculty of Health Sciences) and Prof David Warwick (University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust), Lisa developed a programme of research to investigate return to work after carpal tunnel release. In 2015 Lisa won an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship to complete this research as part of the Centre of Musculoskeletal Health and Work. Lisa started her PhD in January 2016 and will explore the advice currently provided by clinicians concerning return to work after carpal tunnel release; when and how patients return to work post-operatively; and whether earlier return to work is associated with poorer outcomes. This information will be used to develop evidence-based practice guidelines.

Nield, Heidi

Trial Director

Nield, Heidi

Name

Heidi Nield

Qualifications

Role

Clinical Trial Operations Director

Ntani, Georgia

Senior Research Fellow

Ntani, Georgia

Name

Dr Georgia Ntani

Qualifications

MSc, PhD

Role

Senior Research Fellow

Georgia completed her diploma (5-year degree) in Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece, before completing an MSc in medical statistics at the University of Southampton. She then joined the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in 2010 as a medical statistician mainly working with the research team of occupational epidemiology. In 2017 she obtained a PhD in medical statistics looking at approaches to the analysis of clustered data arising from multicentre studies. Since then, Georgia has been working at the MRC LEU as a senior research fellow researching the effects of musculoskeletal problems and related disability.

The specific projects that she is involved in include: cultural effects of musculoskeletal pain and related disability; the associations between work and health among people around the age of retirement; short and long term outcomes for patients going back to work after hip/knee arthroplasty; effects on post-operative return to work timescales for patients undergoing carpal tunnel release. Even though Georgia’s main research interests focus on the effects on musculoskeletal pain, she is also particularly interested in the methodological aspects of epidemiological investigation.

Matt Joined the unit in January 2016. He’d previously been working in the Pharmacy IMT & ePrescribing team at Southampton General Hospital maintaining their equipment and systems and ensuring that they were functional and fit for purpose.

He currently works on the IT helpdesk answering calls and queries from people in the unit about their equipment and software, fixing problems that arrive and procuring new equipment as needed.

Osmond, Clive

Professor of Biostatistics

Osmond, Clive

Name

Professor Clive Osmond

Qualifications

MA, PhD, CStat

Role

Medical Research Council Senior Scientist and Professor of Biostatistics

Current Position: 1980 to present. Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK. Medical Research Council Senior Scientist and Professor of Biostatistics.

Summary: I am a collaborating applied statistician with a special interest in the early life origins of health and disease. I worked for thirty years with the late Professor David Barker as he developed these ideas. I research how events early in life programme consequences later in life, studying cohorts in which early life measurements were measured in particular detail. I have close collaborations with birth cohorts in the UK, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Jamaica and New Delhi. I am a member of the COHORTS collaboration, a collection of such studies in Low and Middle Income Countries.

Education:

1977 MA Mathematics Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, UK

1980 PhD Mathematics University of Bath, UK

Collaborators:

Professor Bo Abrahamsen, Glostrup Hospital, Denmark

Dr Saleh Al-wasel, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Professor Linda Adair, University of North Carolina, USA (COHORTS collaboration)

Graduate Advisor: I mentor the statisticians in our department working on these topics. I provide statistical advice to members of Sneha (the India developmental origins society), and have advised the equivalent groups in the Nordic Countries and Thailand.

Thesis advising: In the last five-year period I have supervised six PhD students to completion and two are still active.

Parsons, Camille

Senior Research Fellow

Parsons, Camille

Name

Dr Camille (Millie) Parsons

Qualifications

MSc, PhD

Role

Senior Research Fellow/statistician

Millie originally joined the Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in 2012 as a statistician within the musculoskeletal programme of research in the unit. She has recently completed a PhD entitled “Definition of trajectories of joint space narrowing in knee osteoarthritis in the presence of measurement error”. In her thesis Millie developed and contrasted statistical methods that identify change in a continuous variables used to monitor osteoarthritis disease progression, knee joint space width measurement, over time within individuals diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. Millie’s research interests include monitoring and understanding longitudinal change and risk factors, with a particular focus in osteoarthritis and bone health.

Before joining the Unit Millie obtained an MSc in Statistics with Applications in Medicine from the University of Southampton in October 2010. She initially worked as a research assistant at the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College, using routinely captured health data to develop measures of quality in healthcare. She has also worked as a clinical statistician at Southampton Biomedical Research Unit, Southampton General Hospital.

Patel, Harnish

Consultant Physician

Patel, Harnish

Harnish graduated in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Southampton in 2000. After general medical training in Southampton and London, he completed his higher medical training in Wessex and attained a PhD in 2010. Harnish was appointed Consultant in Geriatric Medicine, University Hospital Southampton in 2014.

Clinical interests:

Falls and syncope

Research

Harnish is a member of the interdisciplinary Ageing & Health Group which carries out high quality clinical, epidemiological, basic and social science research that translates into improving the health of older people. Harnish’s research forms part of the Sarcopenia, Frailty and Clinical Practice in Older People programme.

His doctoral research was titled Life Course Influences on Skeletal Muscle Morphology, Mass and Function in Community Dwelling Older Men. The main focus of his work was elucidating mechanisms underlying the developmental origins of sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength and function with age. His study involved the detailed characterisation of muscle mass as well as function, and also included the study of muscle at the cellular level in tissue obtained through percutaneous biopsy. His post-doctoral work is on nutrition, lifestyle, epigenetics and sarcopenia in older people in a study funded by the NIHR Nutrition Biomedical Research Centre, Southampton General Hospital in which he is the principal investigator.

Committees, education and training

Harnish was a trainee representative of the British Geriatric Society (BGS) Academic and Research committee as well as the BGS Education and Training Committee. He is an undergraduate clinical tutor and teaching commitments include seminars on Sarcopenia and Frailty and facilitating Ageing related plenary sessions. He also led and delivered the undergraduate student selected module ‘Appraising Medical Evidence’ within the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton.

Book chapter titled Percutaneous muscle biopsy: history methods and acceptability can be downloaded here